Federal agency decisions, searchable in plain English.
Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) and mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), each with a plain-English summary, the standards it cites, and whether it counts as precedent. More agencies are coming.
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A. J. McNulty & Company, Inc.
Mixed ruling on fall protection during precast concrete erection
A. J. McNulty & Company was erecting a precast concrete parking garage in White Plains, New York, when OSHA cited numerous fall-protection and other safety violations. The Commission rejected McNulty's request to exclude inspection evidence, finding that OSHA substantially honored the company's…
T.L.T. Construction Co., Inc.
Open-edge and willful scaffold violations affirmed
T.L.T. Construction was the general contractor on a school gymnasium project where employees worked near an unguarded floor edge and on tall scaffolds. Judge Richard DeBenedetto found that the open-sided floor exposed employees to falls of six to nine feet. He also found that employees climbed…
R.K. Construction & Development Co.
All five demolition-site citations affirmed with penalties reduced to $4,250
R.K. Construction & Development Co. is a small family-owned demolition and building restoration contractor in Savannah, Georgia. While the company was tearing down a three-story building, an OSHA compliance officer driving by saw employees on a scaffold about 25 feet up and stopped to inspect. OSHA…
Milo Construction Corporation
Twelve violations affirmed with reduced classifications
Milo Construction Corporation was the prime contractor on a residential construction project in Guam. After Milo failed to comply with discovery orders, the judge deemed admitted the cited conditions, employee exposure, and Milo's ability to control or correct the hazards. The violations covered…
Milo Construction Corporation
Nine construction violations affirmed
Milo Construction Corporation was the prime contractor for construction at Sirena Plaza in Agana, Guam. After Milo failed to comply with discovery orders, the cited violations, their classifications, and Milo's knowledge were deemed admitted. The judge held Milo responsible for hazards involving…
G-MAC Construction Company, Inc.
Willful scaffold citations reduced to serious, penalties cut sharply
G-MAC Construction Company, Inc. was the stucco subcontractor on a Comfort Inn project in Omaha, Nebraska, and in turn subcontracted the work to Eucardo Molina, whose crew worked from a 40-foot scaffold with no guardrails and climbed the frame to get on it. G-MAC argued Molina was an independent…
Midwest Masonry, Inc.
Repeat scaffold access and guardrail citations affirmed, penalties reduced
Midwest Masonry, Inc. was building a masonry wall in Kearney, Nebraska, when an OSHA compliance officer driving past videotaped workers climbing down a scaffold frame and working on an unguarded platform. OSHA issued two repeat citations, one for failing to provide a ladder or equivalent safe…
Meridian Contractors, Inc.
Dismissals reversed and citation cases remanded
OSHA issued Meridian Contractors serious and willful construction citations with proposed penalties after two inspections. The ALJ dismissed both cases under Commission precedent treating the actions as moot because Meridian had stopped employing workers and was preparing to dissolve. After that…
Connelly Construction Corp.
Scaffold guardrail violation affirmed as willful
Connelly performed masonry work from multi-level scaffolding at a shopping mall construction site. The judge found serious violations for employees without hard hats, inadequate scaffold access, missing overhead screening above a building entrance, and unguarded stairways. The principal…
Keith Rasmussen & Sons Construction
Scaffold and fall-protection citations mostly upheld, but penalties cut sharply for a four-worker employer
Keith Rasmussen & Sons Construction, a four-worker builder in Ouray, Colorado, was inspected by OSHA in April 1994 at a jobsite on Main Street. OSHA issued five citation items covering scaffold access, scaffold footing, guardrails, an unguarded second-floor edge, and the lack of a written safety…
Regional Scaffolding & Hoisting Co.
Scaffold access deemed de minimis, missing rails and toeboards cost $700
Regional Scaffolding & Hoisting Co. erected a tubular welded-frame scaffold about 15 feet high for two employees welding at a White Plains, New York worksite. The employees climbed down scaffold rungs spaced 18 to 24 inches apart instead of using a nearby ladder. Chief Judge Irving Sommer found…
M & W Roofing Co., Inc.
Scaffold access, guardrail, and hard-hat violations affirmed for $1,100
M & W Roofing Co., Inc. worked from scaffold platforms at a Walgreens construction site in Wisconsin. An employee reached the scaffold by climbing its cross members because no ladder or equivalent safe access was provided. The 12-foot and 18-foot platforms also lacked required guardrails and…
Baker Concrete Constr. Co.
Scaffold-access citation vacated for lack of fair notice
Baker Concrete employees climbed formwork to reach a partially dismantled scaffold at a shopping-mall construction site. An administrative law judge affirmed a serious citation for failing to provide a ladder or equivalent safe access and assessed $2,500. The Commission reversed because three OSHA…
Siravo Contracting, Inc.
Three scaffold and masonry items affirmed, two vacated, $975
Siravo Contracting was doing masonry work on a Caldor department store construction site in Philadelphia when OSHA inspected in December 1992 after a referral about an overloaded, unguarded scaffold. The agency issued five serious items: too much block stored on the scaffold, an untapered stack of…
McDonald Masonry
Four scaffold-safety items affirmed as serious, $5,500
McDonald Masonry did masonry work at a jobsite in De Soto, Texas, where OSHA inspected in July 1993 and issued a serious citation. The company contested four scaffold-related items but its owner did not appear at the June 1994 hearing, so Administrative Law Judge Stanley M. Schwartz proceeded on…
Metric Constructors, Inc.
General contractor held liable for subcontractor hazards
Metric Constructors was the general contractor for a 29-building federal prison project covering about 200 acres in Estill, South Carolina. OSHA cited scaffold, trench, hazard-communication, fire-extinguisher, compressed-gas-cylinder, and trench-access conditions created by subcontractors whose…
Novinger's Inc.
Scaffold access item modified and guardrail item affirmed
Novinger's was an interior-finishes subcontractor working inside an air shaft at a building project in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Employees reached a tube-and-coupler scaffold by stepping over a two-inch lip and across a 9.5-inch gap from the third-floor slab. The judge held that the safe-access…
Kenneth J. Herman, Inc.
Construction safety violations affirmed
Kenneth J. Herman, Inc. was constructing fire escapes at a New York worksite. OSHA cited employees working without required head protection, using a scaffold frame instead of safe access, and working on scaffolds without required guardrails or effective tie-off protection. OSHA also cited the…
B & M Construction
Three scaffold access and fall-protection items affirmed
B & M Construction performed asbestos removal around a boiler at a City of Lubbock power plant. OSHA found no access ladder, two unguarded openings in a walkway about 12 feet above the ground, and an unguarded I-beam used as a walkway. B & M argued that employees had not worked on the boiler…
Sal Masonry Contractors, Inc.
Ladder item vacated and guardrail violation made willful
Sal Masonry Contractors was cited for ladder and scaffold violations during masonry work on an academic building at Cornell University. The Commission vacated the scaffold-access item because the testimony conflicted over whether a ladder was present and whether supervisors knew employees were…
Atlas Industrial Painters
Safety-belt item remained willful, ladder item reduced
Atlas employees painted a bridge from small scaffolds about 30 feet above the ground without tied-off safety belts, lifelines, nets, or ladder extensions. The Commission affirmed the safety-belt item as willful because Atlas knew the requirement, had a prior fall-protection citation, and declined…
Fred C. Kroeger & Sons
Scaffold access item affirmed for $100
Fred C. Kroeger & Sons was a bricklaying subcontractor at a church construction site. OSHA cited the company because employees climbed scaffold braces without an access ladder and because a scaffold allegedly lacked required guardrails and toeboards. The ALJ affirmed the access item, reduced its…
Borton, Inc.
Scaffold access-ladder violation affirmed
A Borton employee entered a grain silo without using the available ladder, landed on an interior scaffold about 123 feet above the floor, broke through a plank, and died in the fall. The Commission held that the scaffold access standard requires an employer not only to supply a ladder or equivalent…
Daniel Construction Co., Boise Cascade Project
Scaffold-access item affirmed; electrical items split
The Commission reviewed five items from a paper-mill construction project. It vacated an exposed-wire item because the Secretary did not prove Daniel knew or should have known the wire was energized, affirmed vacation of a hoist-inspection item and an electrical-booth access item, and found a…
Paul Betty d/b/a Betty Brothers
Scaffold and housekeeping violations affirmed but repetition rejected
Two Betty Brothers employees worked from a 12-foot scaffold without guardrails or an access ladder, and debris with protruding nails surrounded the work area. The senior employee supervised the other worker, purchased materials, reported progress, and acted as the company's on-site representative…
Stearns-Roger, Inc.
Serious fall-protection violation affirmed after delayed citation
Stearns-Roger had 10 to 25 ironworkers performing bolting work on narrow steel beams 94 to 120 feet above the ground. Employees tied off while stationary but often walked between connection points without fall protection. The judge vacated the citation because OSHA issued it 139 days after the…
Donald Harris, Inc.
Unguarded scaffold violation properly classified as repeated
OSHA found the company's foreman working on a scaffold about 15 feet high without a standard guardrail. Donald Harris argued that the citation should be vacated because it was not invited to join the inspection, but the Commission found no prejudice to its defense. The company had two earlier final…
Gil Haugan d/b/a Haugan Construction Co.
Scaffold and improvised-lifting violations affirmed
At one construction site, subcontractor employees used a scaffold without guardrails or safe access and with planks extending too far or too little beyond their supports. The Commission held Haugan responsible as general contractor because the obvious violations were conditions it could reasonably…
Rodney E. Fossett d/b/a Southern Lightweight Concrete
Scaffold ruling modified
Fossett's employees applied stucco from a tubular scaffold about twelve feet above the ground. The citation used the wrong scaffold-plank provision, but the hearing evidence addressed the correct requirement that planks extend at least six inches over their end supports. The Commission held that…
Otis Elevator Company
Scaffold-access violation reduced to de minimis
Otis employees installing elevators worked from a 30-foot scaffold inside an elevator shaft and climbed built-in scaffold rungs spaced 18 inches apart. The judge found that the rungs were not equivalent to a proper access ladder under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.451(a)(13), affirmed a nonserious violation…
Smith Masonry Contractors, Inc.
Repeated scaffold guardrail violation affirmed
Smith Masonry Contractors, Inc. was cited after a hod carrier removed blocks from the unguarded 13-foot level of a partially dismantled scaffold. Although the compliance officer did not see the employee on the upper level, photographs taken ten minutes apart established exposure through…
Charles H. Tompkins
Scaffold access deemed de minimis and crane item vacated
Employees building an upper work platform climbed scaffold-buck rungs spaced 18 to 20 inches apart instead of using a ladder with 12-inch rung spacing. The Commission held that the scaffold bucks were not equivalent safe access, but the added spacing did not appreciably reduce climbing safety. It…
Eliason & Knuth Drywall Company
Drywall citation rulings left in effect
Eliason & Knuth received citations at two Omaha construction sites for housekeeping, scaffold, electrical, and guarding conditions. The Commission declined to review the judge's rulings on most items because no party objected and no compelling public-interest issue was shown. The disputed issue was…
W. G. Cornell Co. of Washington, Inc.
Scaffold guardrail and access violations affirmed under substituted standards
W. G. Cornell employees used a roughly 40-foot tubular scaffold erected by the general contractor. Three upper platforms lacked guardrails, and employees climbed the scaffold's cross-braces because no adequate access ladder was provided. The judge held that the concrete-construction standard…
Rust Engineering Company; Allegheny Industrial Electric Company
Scaffold access item reduced to de minimis
A Rust Engineering employee climbed down a 15-foot scaffold using its end-frame bars instead of a separate access ladder. The Commission agreed that the bars were not equivalent to a proper ladder because their spacing varied from 19 to 21 inches and the record did not show slip-resistant…
Alpha Masonry, Inc.
Scaffold guardrail and access violations affirmed
Alpha Masonry employees worked from a fourth-floor scaffold with unguarded ends. Employees also moved between the building and the scaffold by taking a two-foot horizontal and three-foot vertical step while exposed to falls of about 38 to 41 feet. The judge found serious guardrail and safe-access…
Calcedo Construction Corporation
Scaffold charge reduced from willful to serious
Calcedo employees worked below overhead steel activity without hard hats, cut brick without eye protection, and used a 25-foot scaffold without a proper access ladder, complete planking, guardrails, or toeboards. The judge affirmed the head, eye, ladder, and scaffold citations. He found the…
Tower Crane Erection & Dismantling Co., Inc.
Scaffold access and guardrail citations affirmed
Tower Crane Erection & Dismantling performed specialized reinforcing-steel work on an Atlanta apartment project. Its employees climbed formwork to reach a scaffold about 16 feet above the ground because no ladder or equivalent access was provided, and the scaffold had no guardrails or safety-belt…
Ringland-Johnson, Inc.
Fall-hazard citations affirmed with $605 in penalties
Ringland-Johnson employees poured concrete while standing on planks laid across a scaffold inside a circular concrete structure. Gaps between the planks were 30 to 40 inches wide, and employees could fall 19.5 feet; an elevated runway also lacked guardrails, and the scaffold had no ladder or…
Anchorage Plastering Company
Scaffold citations vacated for lack of commerce proof
OSHA cited alleged scaffold, hard-hat, and flammable-liquid violations while Anchorage Plastering employees applied stucco at an Alaska medical-center project. The judge did not reach the safety merits. He held that the Secretary failed to prove that the small plastering business affected…
Jack Shelton, d/b/a Jack Shelton Painting Contractor
Sandblasting item reduced to nonserious
Jack Shelton Painting Contractor used a rented sandblaster and a mobile scaffold at an Idaho construction project. The sandblasting nozzle lacked a manual operating valve, so the worker holding it had to signal another employee to shut off the equipment. The judge found a violation but reclassified…
Lipsky & Rosenthal, Inc.
Sixth-floor guardrail item reduced to non-serious
Lipsky & Rosenthal was a plumbing subcontractor on an apartment construction project. Three employees hauled plumbing materials while standing at the unguarded edge of a sixth floor. The Secretary charged that condition as non-serious, but the judge classified it as serious and assessed $250. The…
Kehm Construction Company, Inc.
Scaffold-access items affirmed and ladder-defect item vacated
Kehm Construction was cited at two Nebraska job sites for failing to provide safe ladder access to scaffolds and for using an aluminum ladder with a crimped rung and bent side rail. The Commission affirmed the two scaffold-access violations because employees had to climb the scaffold structure to…
Brisk Waterproofing Company, Inc.
Scaffold access charge amended and $1,200 assessed
Brisk employees performed caulking work from two suspended scaffolds 18 stories above the ground. An employee moved between them around a pylon and across an open gap without a safety belt, and three employees occupied a scaffold rated for no more than two workers. The Commission held that OSHA…
What these documents are
- Commission decisions: Rulings by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission itself, the highest level of agency review. These are citable as Commission precedent, though a decision may have been appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals after issuance.
- ALJ decisions: Rulings by OSHRC Administrative Law Judges after a hearing. When no Commissioner directs review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.
- Why finality matters: Every page here says which kind of decision you are reading, so you know whether it is precedent you can cite or a final order that only shows how one judge ruled on one set of facts.
- Where they come from: Every page links the official OSHRC public release, and the full text on the page is that release. The plain-English summaries are written by Ezel.